Tigers taking their slide in stride

Bob Wojnowski. Bob Wojnowski is a sports columnist for the Detroit NewsCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The days are getting shorter. The nights are getting chillier. The stakes are growing and the games are tightening and any little mistake can become a big one, and any series can become a pivotal one.

The Tigers are starting to feel it, which doesn't have to be a bad thing. We'd question their humanness if they weren't feeling it. Texas just left town with three straight victories, including a 7-6 stunner Sunday that surely qualified as one of the Tigers' worst losses of the season.

The White Sox are here Monday night for the first of four games, and although the defending champs trail the Tigers by 5 1/2 games, this could get sticky if the Tigers aren't careful. Their season-long dominance has frayed, with nine losses in 12 games, which also happens to be their record against the White Sox--nine losses in 12 games.

Here's the good news: I did not find a single Tigers player whimpering in a corner of the clubhouse, begging to be freed from the pressure. Here's the issue, delivered without breathless dramatic effect: The Tigers need to relax and remember who they are but forget where they are.

"I'm always excited to play the White Sox, and maybe it's good to kind of light a fire under us, get us back on track," third baseman Brandon Inge said. "I know no one's worrying, no one's panicking, everything's fine."

This will become a taut pennant race only if the Tigers let it. They let three games slip away against Texas, blowing a 6-0 lead Sunday because they played--and Jeremy Bonderman pitched--as if the game was over in the second inning.

We're not wavering. The Tigers' pitching has been too good for too long to question their playoff credentials. But the hitting has become a sudden mystery and the fielding has faltered, and you can bet the tension will be palpable Monday night, when rookie whiz Justin Verlander faces Chicago ace Jose Contreras.

The Tigers sounded sick of the pressure questions even before they were posed Sunday. But just as they've gotten used to sellout crowds, they had better get used to this.

"I'm not a psychologist, but you have to have total concentration and total relaxation," manager Jim Leyland said. "And it's not all that easy. You've got to step up the ladder as far as the relaxation part."

This might be the best test of Leyland's steady hand, right now, right here. The Tigers' key hitters, Magglio Ordonez and Pudge Rodriguez, have struggled. Young center fielder Curtis Granderson has been flailing. The Tigers still strike out way too much (most in the AL) and walk too infrequently.

We knew they'd hit a rough stretch because that's how baseball has worked for more than a century. But they can't afford to extend this one. The White Sox don't need much fuel to get churning again.

"We signed up for 162 games, and nobody said it'd be easy," hot-hitting outfielder Craig Monroe said. "It's a good attitude in here; we still feel we're the best team in the game."

So, about the White Sox . . .

"I'm almost tired of talking about that, to be honest," Monroe said. "Let's just play the games. Who cares what you say before the game? I'm excited about the series and every guy in here is excited."

Across the room, reliever Todd Jones could be heard playfully mocking any overreaction by shouting, "We're falling apart! We're losing! We can't handle the pressure!"

Jones is a veteran who knows about heat and has handled it superbly this season. The Tigers have others, starting with Leyland and Rodriguez, who understand and appreciate the tender tension of late-summer games.

Bonderman was inexplicably poor Sunday, but he has been too good to signal an alarm there. Placido Polanco's injured shoulder, which will sideline him for most of the regular season, is a concern. Don't expect Dave Dombrowski's Sunday acquisition, Neifi Perez, to make a big impact.

So yes, there are holes, always more noticeable against the better teams, in the bigger games. But amid all this supposed queasiness, the Tigers did win two of three in Boston last week. They did take two of three against the White Sox here last month.

No one should kid themselves. This is a huge series. The Tigers remain in control, and can begin to strangle Chicago by winning the series. But waiting around for ninth-inning magic, or assuming 6-0 leads will hold up, won't work.

Danger? Only if the Tigers feel it, and show it. I'm guessing the White Sox and the rest of baseball are rubbing their hands in anticipation of a long-awaited swoon. The Tigers haven't felt the stares and whispers all season. No sense starting now.